Here are 24 characters that can be downloaded so as to start getting used to Laotian writing. To be able to use these characters without a special keyboard, you can download the picture that has been prepared to relate between the English keyboard (QWERTY) and Laotian letters. You must make sure you change from AZERTY to QWERTY, before starting to try and write in Lao, so as to change the language of the keyboard.
At last a Lao keyboard exists. Unfortunately its only available with a PS2 connection (not yet USB).
To install new fonts
Click on one of the fonts and ’save’ on the computer (...)

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The Lao alphabet uses a calligraphy derived from that of India and very near to the Thai alphabet (we can find in these two languages, similar groups of consonants and vowels, having almost the same pronunciation.)
Consonants
There exists 34 consonants in the Lao language divided into 3 groups. Each of these groups corresponds to a vocal resonance when the letter is used, with or without tonal accent.
Consonants can, at the end of a word, signify a different pronunciation than that shown at the end of the word. In this way, the "d" at the end of a word, is pronounced "t", the "b" is (...)

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The first difficulty is due to the tonalities (to the 6 tonal accents which each evolve differently, according to the consonant on which the tonal accent is placed). The other difficulty is with specific Lao sounds for which there is no literal transcription in our language. It is often awkward to try and make a Lao word correspond to a word written in English, which will only be an approximation of the original pronunciation.
As an example, lets take the word pronounced "thao" (not to be confused with "tao" :-) which signifies sir, young man or boy. This term can be written 12 different (...)

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